23 September 1942

23 Sept 1942

Dear Angela
I will begin as usual with “I was very pleased to receive your letter”, I am replying as soon as possible. I will tell my pal to write to Virginia again and I hope his letter arrives this time.
I am sure that you would not have liked the work in the cannery and I think it would have been much more monotonous than your own work – even if it was shaving discs.
I have been “tool fettling” for the last month, this is just a form of blacksmithing and my hands don’t seem to like a hammer-shaft judging by the blisters. However I have had a rest as I was ill in bed with influenza last week, it was very boring with nothing to do.
You will probably have started college when you receive this letter and I hope you are not having to work too hard. I begin my Second Year B.Sc. course on Oct. 1st and I have just received my time table and found that I have no free periods, and that I have extra half hours at all odd times during the week; so it seems as if I will have some work to plough through. If I can remember, you will find enclosed a cutting from the newspaper about the State Bursaries won by the College and more by luck than good management I happened to be the only Mechanical Engineer among them, the rest were Electrical. I felt proud when one of the young apprentices at work won a free scholarship to college as I had been teaching him – I suppose he would have done just as well with anyone else teaching him.
You will probably find plenty of trouble if your everlasting curiosity makes you read Shakespeare – if you want to read him read his comedies first, and don’t try to discover all his puns and subtleness at the first reading. I think a very short description of his life would amuse you, in case you have not seen them before the lines over his grave are:-
Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare
To dig the dust encloased heare
Blese be Ye man Yt spares thes stones
And curst be he Yt moves my bones
Don’t think my spelling is as bad as above but that is the original English and you can read it as you think fit.
I can’t think of any more news as so very little seems to happen across here – I hope you can understand this letter but I have been trying to teach mam to dance and write this at the same time. My brain seems too dull even to prattle. I will close
Love & “all the best”
Harold

30 August 1942 - Censor at work again!

30 July 1942 - A Load of Prattle!

30 July 1942

Dear Angela
Your letter arrived two days ago Diane’s arrived yesterday and Tommy has replied.
At present I am on a weeks holiday from work and the weather has been very kind to me, it rained every day for three weeks and when my holiday started the sun came out. I had better not say too much or it may start to rain. I am obeying the “posters” and having “a holiday at home”, I had a day at Newcastle with mam; I went to Wolsingham on my bicycle on Tuesday – it is just a nice ride, about 30 miles – through Durham with its Castle and Cathedral, then Brancepeth which has a lovely old castle in its own grounds, and then up the Wear valley to Wolsingham which is a lovely little village in the valley. I stayed there about two hours and got a very rough sketch of the village. Yesterday I spent at the sea-front and I am fairly well sunburned by now. Mam, dad and I intend to have a day at Durham tomorrow, this will mean dad and I rowing a boat on the river while mam goes to sleep – however a holiday at home would not be complete without a visit to Durham.
I think I am beginning to be searching for something to say already, because very little has happened in the last week or two –it has just been bed and work for me –there has been one or two “alerts” but no bombs dropped.
You said that you do not get many English films in America – if “Dangerous Moonlight” ever comes I advise you to see it, I admit that most English films are inferior to the American but not this one. It is the film in which the Warsaw Concerto is the theme.
You will have heard about “sweets” being rationed over here – we are allowed 2 oz a week, and as yet I have not decided whether I should have 2 oz of chocolate a week or have a half pound once a month. Another trouble is that both mam and dad like chocolate and I don’t seem to have much hope of having more than my ration.
I am afraid I will have to resort to your method and “prattle” for a half page or so in order to prevent myself from closing at the top of a page. However I don’t think it is a sin to prattle.
“Poor prattler! How thou talk’st” – so said Shakespeare via Lady Macduff in Macbeth, and as far as I can remember there was a choice piece of prattling (or p’raps “prattellation” sounds better) in the scene with L. Macduff and her son who was of course Macduffs son – but “father’d he is and yet he’s fatherless”
If you can’t understand the above I would not worry, unless you hear a “prattle” of thunder.
If you can understand the above “you’re a better man than I am Gunga Din” and you had better see a doctor.
If by any chance you can read any of the above you should see an eye specialist or become a language expert–but why worry even blind men go to see eye specialists.
And now having avoided finishing at the top of a page I will close with
Love and prattle
Harold
P.S. I am sorry I have not found more to write but I am absolutely “on the rocks” for news – hoping you don’t mind the crazy last page

11 July 1942

11 July 1942

Dear Angela
Your letter arrived a few days ago having taken longer than usual to come. But the main thing is that it did arrive. I must thank you very much for the photo and I disagree with you when you say it isn’t very good, if the rest of the class looked the same as you it must have been a ‘super’ graduation day. I think I told you that we have no graduation days over here, we just leave the Secondary Schools without any fuss, just as if we were glad to be out of the place. We had a “speech day” before the war, when prizes were given for good work in each class of the school, and the school choir and orchestra rendered or murdered a few songs. Even if we had a graduation day it would not be very good as we have no mixed classes, and to make it a good day we need a few graduation dresses like yours, and girls in them like you. (I am now getting my own back to your mention of being formal, which is the last thing in the world I would like to be). In short – I think you look very charming – “short and sweet” as we say about any short sentence which states a fact plainly. I don’t know if you ever use “Master” in America, in England we use it for boys who are fairly young or who have the same initials as their father – perhaps I am not “fairly young” but I have the same initials as dad, but that doesn’t give you any excuse to use MASTER in inch high capitals or to use JUNIOR either – just keep to “Mr” – I have started my letter “stupid” because you finished yours “stupid”. The rest of my letter may be “stupid” yet – I don’t know!
I think I was preparing for an exam the last time I wrote, well the results are out and I am pleased to say that I have managed to scrape through, there were only 10 out of the 20 boys who sat that got through – I didn’t do so bad! I have had an interview with the “recruiting board” and my calling up papers will be deferred until after my next exam in July 1943 and perhaps later – on condition I remain in the Training Corps and make good progress at college.
We had the college sports about a fortnight ago and “Degree”, which was the section I ran for, won the championship. I am afraid I didn’t do very grand, I won the 880 yds and got 3 – 3rds in the 100yds, 220 yds & 440 yds. I then pulled in the tug-o-war team and as I had no time to train I was in awful shape and could hardly walk, so I didn’t run in the relay team but let another chap run in my place. There was a dance after the sports but my legs were in no state for dancing so I did not go – I had pains for about a week afterwards. I went into the sea for my first bathe this year but I was only in a few minutes as it was so cold. We are allowed on the beaches during certain times for bathing only, but it is not as good as before the war when we spent the whole day on the beach – however we can put up with it until after the war.
I am working now in the fitting shops for three months, and I am enjoying myself again in boiler suits and lots of oil and grease. This is perhaps the reason why my writing (?) is much worse than usual as I can hardly hold a pen after holding hammers and files.
You mention how peculiar it was in San Francisco without the wind, I suppose I have had a similar feeling to-night. Wet weather is part of an English summer but not weather like to-night, it has been pouring down to-night, the thunder was much louder than any bombs and it has been shaking the houses, lightening also had a large part in the show – and to crown it all hailstones the size of peas fell for about an hour. I am not sure if it is July or not.
You seem to have the same dreams as me, I want to take a trip around the world but I don’t think I will ever have the money. However I intend to get some engineering experience abroad and I may get a chance to look you up some day in the future.
I was at an aquarium about six years ago and I can still remember some of the fishes and crabs, a small octopus seemed to be the most disagreeable to me.
I will close on this sheet of paper in order to save paper. I hope you can read the above.
Lots of love
Harold (another hit at your formality!)

16 May 1942

16.5.42

Dear Angela
I am surprising myself by answering your letter almost immediately, at present I am “fire watching” at college and I have taken the chance to write to you. I don’t think you will have anything like fire watching in America, I am on about once a week.
We had plenty of “your” canned fruit before the war but I don’t think I have seen any since the war started. All canned and dried fruit is rationed over here, in fact there are not many things which are not.
Mam almost fainted when she heard about you refurnishing your room, there is very little new furniture made and the prices are fairly high. Other things which are very scarce are pots, pans, kettles, cups, tea pots, etc – dad and I are always hearing about the lack of various things from mam. Next month chocolate and sweets will be rationed – I wonder if they will ever ration homework?
You must excuse me if this letter is rather dry and muddled. The reason is that I have an exam in two weeks time and I am so full of formulae and proofs that I can hardly think about everyday things. After the exam I am going to work in the Borough Engineers Office and I hope to have a rather easy time compared to college.
I cannot say much about the war as it is still changing very quickly. You will about the Augsberg and Lubeck raids by the R.A.F., well we were all very pleased when we heard that one of our pals was in both raids. It also made me think about how little I was doing just swotting at college, however the Government seem to think that we are quite alright where we are.
I hope you got my letter about Diane’s correspondent, I enclosed his address and if she has written it will be alright, if not I will tell Tommy to write after your next letter arrives (i.e. after Diane’s letter would have arrived if she had written). – I hope you can understand but I doubt it! I have also got a correspondent for Virginia, he is one of my fire watching pals on fire-watching with me now and he is about 17 years old.
The novelty of your design had a great appeal to me, I must admit I have never tried to ‘stylize’ anything in your manner. I have made landscapes of castles into designs in pen and ink and they seem to give a very eerie touch to the scene. However I must admit that your design is much better than any of mine. The exhibition in town at present is of the 1941 Royal Academy Exhibits and some of the water colours and a pencil sketch are marvellous. Do you have many art exhibitions in America?
Well I will leave the letter for a while as I seem to have “dried up” for the present.
Well I am afraid I am still hard up for news – every time I try to think I remember the amount of Maths or Physics I don’t know and in order not to prolong the agony I will close now.
I hope, as usual, that you can read the above and perhaps get some sense out of it – I shall be in a better frame of mind when I write next (after the exam).
I remain
Yours sincerely
Harold